Terrifying Poll Shows How Republicans Are Just Willing To Let It All Blow Up

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent alerts us to a
new WaPo/ABC poll that leads to a rather unprecedented conclusion
— if there is a crisis over raising the debt ceiling, it'll come
because Republican voters overwhelmingly want that crisis. And
they want it even knowing that it could have disastrous
consequences.

Democrats (62-31) and Independents (48-46) believe the debt
ceiling should be raised. But Republicans (25-61) are about as
heavily against doing so as Democrats are in favor of it.

This is despite the fact that the vast majority of Republicans —
and the vast majority of Americans overall — believe
that not raising the debt ceiling would "cause
serious harm" to the U.S. economy. By a 66-27 split, Republicans
are aware that failure to lift the nation's borrowing
limit could inflict serious consequences. Overall, 73% of
Americans believe it will cause serious harm.

Economists agree that failure to raise the debt
ceiling would be a catastrophe. And in addition to
the stock market plunge, credit rating downgrade, and default,
the costs of even a temporary delay are estimated to
be a whopping $20 billion.